Hot Topics:

CDOT has new plan to smooth I-70 traffic

The Associated Press

Posted:
11/23/2012 10:19:37 AM MST

Updated:
11/23/2012 04:02:46 PM MST

FILE -- Drivers wait out the weather in a long traffic jam on I-70 on April 3rd, 2011, when a surprise spring storm from the north brought traffic to a stand still on both the east and west side of Eisenhower Tunnel along Highway I-70. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

VAIL, Colo.—The Colorado Department of Transportation has a new plan to smooth traffic on Interstate 70, where the Eisenhower Tunnel often clogs on ski weekends.

CDOT will try converting the eastbound highway near the tunnel from two lanes into to four on heavy-traffic days by using the existing shoulders, the Vail Daily reported Thursday ( http://goo.gl/FODtC).

The four lanes would have fast-cycling traffic lights like the ones use on some freeway entrance ramps during heavy traffic.

The area near the tunnel is usually a bottleneck because the three eastbound lanes currently funnel into two. It's where traffic clogs worst on Sunday afternoons and evenings as skiers head back to Denver and the airport.

FILE -- East bound I-70 traffic cues up as it nears the exit to the Eisenhower Tunnel on Sunday, January 22, 2012. It had taken an hour and a half to travel up from Silverthorne to the tunnel. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)

Because the plan will use the existing shoulders, no widening work will be needed.

CDOT spokeswoman Stacy Stegman said the new system could replace "metering" at the tunnels. That system stopped traffic on the west side of the tunnels but led to long delays.

"For every minute you delay traffic, it can take between four and eight minutes to get it moving again," Stegman said. "That means a 20-minute delay can turn into 90 minutes."

The new system will get its first test next month, just as holiday traffic starts to really build, Stegman said. That first test will use a combination of human flaggers and traffic lights.

Over this holiday weekend, the state will start its winter-season "courtesy patrols," in which tow trucks will be available to get broken-down motorists to safety.

Advertisement

And traffic could be pretty heavy this weekend. Wave Dreher, the spokeswoman for AAA Colorado, said that group expected holiday travel this year to be at about the levels it reached last year. According to AAA, nearly 650,000 state residents will travel at least 50 miles by car over Thanksgiving. Higher gas prices, he said, were not changing how people holiday.

"People are still traveling by car—the pull of friends and family is strong," Dreher said.

Billionaires, entertainers and athletes alike announced their intentions to pursue the Los Angeles Clippers with varying degrees of seriousness Wednesday, proving the longtime losers will be quite a prize if the NBA is able to wrest control of the team away from Donald Sterling after his lifetime ban for racist remarks. Full Story

Louie, who (like Louis) is a New York comic and a divorced father of two daughters, knows struggle and angst and cloudy wonderment. He views life through eyes with a stricken look, dwelling in a state of comfortable dread. Full Story